First of all…Happy 4th of July to those that celebrate it! I also want to thank CB for bringing this song up last year on July 4th. I have posted the X version as well as Dave Alvin’s (who wrote the song) solo version of this song…I also threw in a live version from the Blasters.
This song was released in 1987 on X’s See How We Are album. The album peaked at #107 in the Billboard Album Charts.
This was written by the guitarist Dave Alvin, who had recently replaced Billy Zoom in X. Alvin still had ties with his former band, the Blasters, when he wrote the song, and in early 1986 he recorded the song with the group, with Nick Lowe producing. The sessions when downhill when Lowe decided that Dave should sing the song, not the group’s lead singer, his older brother Phil Alvin. The Blasters album was never released, and it ended up being an X song, with their vocalist John Doe singing it.
Nick Lowe told Dave Alvin something in these sessions that was interesting and career changing. Dave Alvin wrote the song but didn’t think he could sing it but Nick wanted him to. Lowe told him “I can’t sing either, but I’ve somehow made a living doing it.”
Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Blaster’s music. Dave Alvin seems to cover everything from blues, rock, rockabilly, country, Americana and more. Here is a quote from him
I’ve always considered myself as basically a blues guy
but I don’t want to limit myself to what some people define as
blues. The “blues form” and the “blues scale” is a constant
in just about all American folk and roots music as well as jazz
and pop. Because of that, I can hear the blues in country music
as well as in the loud garage band down the block.
As a songwriter, if I feel like writing a polka one day,
I’ll write a polka. If I feel like writing a country song
or a rockabilly song, then I’ll do it. It’s hard enough
writing songs to have to bother yourself with somebody’s
categories.
Dave Alvin: “I wrote a long poem is how it really started,” Alvin said in the Zoo Bar’s upstairs dressing room before his latest show there last month. “It’s based on a true story in my life, back when I was a fry cook in Downey (California). Everything in the song is true,” “There was this little cul-de-sac and there were all these beat-up duplexes. We lived in the upstairs duplex. She didn’t want smoking in the place, so I’d sit on the top of the stairs and just stare at the cul-de-sac.”
“I was just trying to capture that moment. This is long before I even thought of being a songwriter. I was 21, 22 and I looked at the Mexican kids shooting fireworks and I looked at everything and I thought, ‘This is a song.’ Eight years later, I finally wrote it.”
From Songfacts
Alvin wrote a third verse, but decided the song had more impact without it, as it leaves the ending up to the listener. He told us: “When X wanted to record the song and we recorded a couple of demos for Elektra, one of the producers, who is a notable musician who shall remain nameless, said, ‘I’m not getting enough. It needs more.’ So, I thought, well, maybe I should pull that third verse back into it? But then I thought, no, it’s getting the point across. They’re either breaking up or they’re staying together.'”
This song is beloved by the band’s fans and has grown in popularity, but it was never a hit. A victim of timing, the late ’80s found X out-of-favor at radio stations, as anything perceived as “Punk” had a hard time getting airplay (Billy Idol excepted). A few years later, Nirvana knocked down that wall, but it was too late for “4th Of July.”
Live Blasters
Dave Alvin’s version
X 4th of July
4th of July
She’s waitin’ for me
When I get home from work
Oh, but things ain’t just the same
She turns out the light
And cries in the dark
Won’t answer when I call her name
On the stairs I smoke a
Cigarette alone
Mexican kids are shootin’
Fireworks below
Hey baby, it’s the Fourth of July
Hey baby, it’s the Fourth of July
She gives me her cheek
When I want her lips
But I don’t have the strength to go
On the lost side of town
In a dark apartment
We gave up trying so long ago
On the stairs I smoke a
Cigarette alone
Mexican kids are shootin’
Fireworks below
Hey baby, it’s the Fourth of July
Hey baby, it’s the Fourth of July
What ever happened I
Apologize
So dry your tears and baby
Walk outside, it’s the Fourth of July
On the stairs I smoke a
Cigarette alone
Mexican kids are shootin’
Fireworks below
Hey baby, it’s the Fourth of July
Hey baby, Baby take a walk outside
….
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